WB led govt into Biwater contract

[BAK]

`WB led govt into Biwater contract`

2008-07-28 09:57:15
By Lydia Shekigenda

It is the World Bank that led the Tanzanian government into signing a contract with Biwater Gauff Tanzania Limited (BGT) which resulted in massive losses and prosecution, a leading Dar es Salaam-based lawyer has said.

In the case, BGT affiliate City Water, wanted the government to pay it $20 million in damages following the termination of a contract under which it was supposed to supply water in Dar es Salaam.

The government won the first case in January this year and has just won a second case in a judgment delivered at The Hague on Friday.

Biwater has subsequently been instructed to pay the legal costs the government incurred on the case.

Nimrod Mkono, a member of a panel of lawyers representing the government in the case, told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that it is the World Bank that approved BGT.

The company later assigned City Water to supply water to Dar es Salaam.

He said according to Friday`s ruling by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), BGT is supposed to pay the government $20 million damages
plus legal and other costs that the government incurred since the case was filed in the UK.

But the counsel, who would not be drawn into disclosing the total amount of the damages, said he saw little hope of City Water managing to cough up the entire sum.

Water and Irrigation minister Mark Mwandosya to the National Assembly in Dodoma on Friday that the government has prevailed in an international arbitration case brought against it by Biwater before the ICSID.

Counsel for the government have been instructed to make a follow-up of the related damages and other legal costs, said the professor.

City Water Company entered into a ten-year contract with the government in 2003 for the improvement of water and sewerage infrastructure in Dar es Salaam.

But the firm failed to deliver as per agreement, and hence the decision by the government to terminate its contract in May 2005.

It was soon after that development that Biwater filed a case against the government before the ICSID at The Hague.

Mkono, a long-serving lawyer, said wrangles of the kind are never dealt with in the country against which complaints are lodged and do not involve neighbouring countries or judges from either of the countries party to the disputes.

SOURCE: Guardian

 

[Game Theory]

Nashangaa role ya DFID na ubalozi wa UK TZ haizungumzwi

 

[Mkandara]

Kwani habari hizi ngeni?... mbona tulijua toka zamani kuhusika kwa WB na mkataba huo...Nakumbuka vizuri sana kwamba nilibishiwa sana na wataalam wetu humu kama sio Bcstimes wakisema IMF na WB hawawezi kutulazimisha ktk mikataba.
nilitoa onyo kali sana kwa Viongozi wetu kujihadhali na vitu vyote vinavyohusiana na Miundombinu..ikiwa ni pamoja na Umeme, Maji, Communication, Banks za nje, Usafiri (Ndege na reli) na kadhalika.. Vitu hivi ni target kubwa ya big Corporates ktk nchi maskini kwani wakisha shika vitu hivyo huwa wameshika uchumi wa nchi nzima. Na ikiwa mtaweka mkataba basi kuvunjika kwake ndio hivyo lazima iwe kesi kubwa sana tena tuna bahati kubwa sana kuweza kushinda, hata hivyo binafsi nina mashaka kuwa pengine ipo kampuni nyingine nyuma inayojiandaa kuchukua contract kwa sababu WB hawawezi kuachia kirahisi.
Kusema kweli ktk hili nadhani ndilo pekee jambo la maana alofanya Lowassa kuwafukuza hawa jamaa wa BiWater!

 

[Game Theory]

Ajabu magazeti au media tanzania wanogopa kuwavaa DFID na Ubalozi wa UK dAR WALIVYOKUWA WAKISHINIKIZA HILI JAMBO

 

[BAK]

Water: Campaigners cheer defeat of Biwater's £10m Tanzanian claim

Xan Rice in Nairobi The Guardian, Tuesday July 29 2008

Anti-poverty campaigners were yesterday celebrating the failure of a British water company to win up to £10m for a bungled privatisation in Tanzania.

Biwater, whose executives were deported from the capital Dar es Salaam in 2005, took Tanzania's government to the World Bank's business tribunal in 2006, arguing its assets had been expropriated and its contract illegally terminated. Campaigners say the contract was forced on Tanzania and accused the Biwater-led consortium - City Water - of performing worse than the state-run utility.

The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment of Disputes (ICSID) in The Hague ruled Tanzania's government had violated its treaty with the UK by expelling City Water. But the tribunal said there were no damages to award as the company's value was "nil" at the time of expropriation. Both parties were liable for their own legal costs, running to millions of pounds, and for the cost of arbitration, the judges ruled.

The UK-based World Development Movement, which campaigns against water privatisation deals in poor countries, described the verdict as "a good day for the people of Tanzania".

But in a statement, Biwater director Larry Magor said: "The rationale is hard to fathom."

Biwater was awarded the licence to run Dar es Salaam's water and sewage service from 2003, after pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which made debt relief and further loans to Tanzania contingent on the sell-off of state-run organisations. The UK government backed the privatisation push by nearly £10m.

But City Water, which included a German engineering company and a Tanzanian investor, soon found itself in trouble. It was collecting less revenue than the former government-owned utility and could not meet performance targets. Internal World Bank reports were highly critical of City Water's performance.

With the public angered by much higher water prices and little improvement in supply, Tanzania unilaterally cancelled City Water's contract in May 2005 and deported its three top executives, all Britons.

In a separate case this year, the arbitration panel of the United Nations commission on international trade law, based in London, found in favour of the Tanzanian government. The tribunal ordered City Water to pay £3m damages to Tanzania, and £500,000 towards legal costs. But Biwater said yesterday the money would not be paid. "Since City Water is, for all practical purposes, defunct, has no functioning board and no assets, the action was completely pointless," Biwater said.

 

[mgirima]

Hivi mbona sakata hili linapo zungumzwa linahusisha City Water peke yake. Yupo local-partner ambaye ni Super Doll yeye huwa haongelewi kabisa kuhusu:-
(a) aliwekeza kiasi gani katika kipindi hicho;
(b) je, mkataba ulimtaka atoe kiasi gani katika kipindi hicho;
(c) ni kiasi gani alishindwa kutekeleza mkataba alioingia na serikali;
(d) anawajibishwa vipi na sakata hilo.

Huyu Super Doll ametokea kuwa mmoja wa wawekezaji (!) hapa nchini. Hii inahusisha mashamba ya miwa Mtibwa na Kagera. Ni vizuri naye akatambulishwa usafi wake katika nyaja za ubinafsishaji, kama upo. Mgogoro wake na wakulima wadogo wa miwa kuhusu malipo ya miwa yao ni kielelezo kimojawapo kwa hilo.

 

[Game Theory]

Hivi mbona sakata hili linapo zungumzwa linahusisha City Water peke yake. Yupo local-partner ambaye ni Super Doll yeye huwa haongelewi kabisa kuhusu:-
(a) aliwekeza kiasi gani katika kipindi hicho;
(b) je, mkataba ulimtaka atoe kiasi gani katika kipindi hicho;
(c) ni kiasi gani alishindwa kutekeleza mkataba alioingia na serikali;
(d) anawajibishwa vipi na sakata hilo.

Huyu Super Doll ametokea kuwa mmoja wa wawekezaji (!) hapa nchini. Hii inahusisha mashamba ya miwa Mtibwa na Kagera. Ni vizuri naye akatambulishwa usafi wake katika nyaja za ubinafsishaji, kama upo. Mgogoro wake na wakulima wadogo wa miwa kuhusu malipo ya miwa yao ni kielelezo kimojawapo kwa hilo.

hahahaaa

hivi kweli unatak kujua hii habari?

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Tel: +255 22 2110141 | Fax: +255 22 2110130/8


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